Slave Labour,Half-Heads,Soccer,Soup and Mammies

It is dark outside and the office smells of stale smoke. This week my work has taken on yet another two countries and I have honestly not had time to jump over desks, let alone change my socks or annoy my colleagues. My schedule has changed again, and I am working mornings only now, which is nice in that after 4pm I am free, but being a dedicated insomniac I of course am still sleeping badly. For the first time, today I have the chance to write a quick blog and read the news and what do I find? Roy Keane has left Manchester United! Although I suspect he is on his way to Celtic, I wish I WISH he becomes the manager of the Irish Football Team, oh please please PLEASE!

So since I last wrote, I have had a visit from my mam, followed by a week of feeling rotten, working late every day, and working 6 days in a row with 2 shifts within 24 hours to top it all off. I am no workaholic, it´s just that I don´t like landing my colleagues in it, and so I did my bit. But it´s a great feeling knowing that if I want to walk away from it all that I will.

I think I have taken a decision on my halfhead boyfriend too. I have been trying to contact him all week but his phone is off and I have heard nothing. I think unless I hear something explaining why he is incomunnicado(I am being fair) that I will go home and not see him. It is his choice. I think anyway that I cannot continue a relationship like this. I am someone for whom absence does not make the heart grow fonder.

I have also this week inherited rollarskates! A pair of natty white 80s skates with which I plan to terrorise and frighten the locals by skating around at the dead of night with that loud crispy trundle that only a hard skate wheel can make...

As for the trip my mother made, well fair play to her for coming all the way out here for just one full day. I met her on the Friday at 4pm in the pissing rain having ended up under a bridge in a part of town that I didn´t know as opposed to at the train station where I was to meet her, but in the end I was so early that I could find my way eventually and still be on time. I brought her home for chicken and lime soup (I mean fed her the soup, or rather she fed herself the soup), and then she showed what she had brought me. BOOKS! I have been so bored and when she phoned and asked what I needed I said BOOKS! And tights, cos they are expensive here. I love my mam. So we went for dinner in a lovely Tapas place called Taller De Tapas in El Borne, and everyone loved us except the couple who tried to steal our seats (my mam glared at them, tossed her head and directed her "SOME people haven´t got a clue.." speech blankly at the wall in front of her and they got up and left). I brought her to the Milk bar where we got pleasantly tipsy before falling into bed. I slept on the floor but I couldn´t sleep cos the metro makes all the roads in this town vibrate, and if you sleep lightly like I do, then lying ON the floor means you feel every tremor. I know, I am a disaster. What can I say?!

The following day we shopped a bit for stuff for her to bring home and ended up mainly choosing foodstuffs like Turron, chocolate and chorizo. I dragged her up to the Gaudi houses and we walked to the Sagrada Familia. I walk everywhere and I forgot how far it was. I realised my mam is starting to get older now and although I don´t worry about it should I begin? No. She was tired at the end, but then so was I. I had played down the size of the church, so when we reached the Sagrada she was genuinely pleased to see it as it is awe-inspiring, not just cos the walk was ended. Then we went for a drink in the staunchly republican Michael Collins where I carefully didn´t discuss politics with the barman cos my mam would start fighting me. We went for dinner later ina lovely African restaurant in Borne again (har har) where they have only 5 plates to choose from but they are great. We went with Nathalie, and then for a coffee and a wander and finally to bed. My mam left at 6am the following morning and has already booked her return flight to Barcelona for January.

Meantime, I have been getting on well with Tato despite his girlfriend boring me to tears. Nathalie and I have gone out once or twice as well as Audrey and I, and on the full moon I had a lovely night in reading and then running up and down the stairs with the cat cos I had so much energy to get rid of.

On Monday I hope to have time to write a more comprehensive whinge, and I suspect I feel a confession coming on. One of my what the bladdy hell (as Audrey says in her thick french accent) am I doing type whinges. In the meantime I am offski to do a rehearsal. They are going great, in case you wondered.